The Power of Culture: Examining the Mysterious and Unique Origins of the Basque Language
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v13i3.7312Keywords:
Basque, Basque Language, Linguistics, Sociology, Language Families, Language Origins, Origins of LanguageAbstract
The Basque language and its unique status as a linguistic isolate in Europe have puzzled scholars, linguists, and historians for many years. The following paper summarizes notable works and theories that attempt to either explain the origins of the Basque language or to connect the Basque language with another language, their reasonings, and their fallacies. The paper begins by discussing Biblical theories of Basque’s origins from medieval scholars of the 14th to 15th century before transitioning to the various attempts made by contemporary linguists and historians to connect Basque with other languages. Research is encouraged to be done on the subject of Basque’s origins and how it got its distinct status as a linguistic isolate. Finally, theories are proposed in the paper which attributes the development and preservation of the Basque language to the nature of its people.
Downloads
References or Bibliography
Agglutinative language. (2019, October 6). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutinative_language
Analytic language. (2023, April 16). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_language
Andres de Poça, & Mares, M. (1587). De la antigua lengua, poblaciones, y comarcas de las Españas. Impresso en Bilbao : Por Mathias Mares. https://liburutegibiltegi.bizkaia.eus/bitstream/handle/20.500.11938/69863/b11147623.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Translated by Antonio Tovar.
Aquitanian language. (2023, December 24). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquitanian_language
Astarloa, P. P. (1883). Discursos filosóficos sobre la lengua primitiva, ó, Gramática y análisis razonada de la euskara ó bascuence. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k886850d/f15.item. Translated by Antonio Tovar.
Balthasar de Echave. (1607). Discursos de la antiguedad de la lengua cantabra bascongada. la Emprenta de Henrrico Martinez. https://liburutegibiltegi.bizkaia.eus/bitstream/handle/20.500.11938/81882/b11151031.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Translated by Antonio Tovar.
Basque education system. (2021, December 13). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_education_system
Basque grammar. (2023, November 20). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_grammar
Bengston, J. D. (1990). An end to splendid isolation: the Macro-Caucasian phylum. Mother Tongue, 10.
Bengston, J. D. (1991). Notes on Sino Caucasian. Dene-Sino-Caucasian Languages, 67–129.
Bengston, J. D. (1993). The Macro-Caucasian hypothesis. Dhumbadji!, 1(2), 13–16.
Benzine, V. (2022, November 15). The Earliest Words Ever Written in Basque Have Been Found Engraved on a Revelatory 2,100-Year-Old Bronze Relic. Artnet News. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/hand-of-irulegi-earliest-basque-script-navarre-spain-2210963
Cirikba, V. A. (1985). Basksij i serverokavkazskie jazyki. Drvevnjaja Anatolija.
de Garibay, E. (1628). Los quarenta libros del compendio historial de las chronicas y vniversal historia de todos los reynos de España. Impresso en Barcelona. https://liburutegibiltegi.bizkaia.eus/bitstream/handle/20.500.11938/70710/b11081156.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Translated by Antonio Tovar.
Dené–Caucasian languages. (2023, September 16). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den%C3%A9%E2%80%93Caucasian_languages
Dené–Yeniseian languages. (2023, November 21). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den%C3%A9%E2%80%93Yeniseian_languages
Ergative–absolutive alignment. (2023, December 6). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative%E2%80%93absolutive_alignment#:~:text=The%20ergative%2Dabsolutive%20alignment%20is
Fairchild, D. (2000, December 13). A Brief Explanation of Basque Morphology. Www.sccs.swarthmore.edu. https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/03/daniel/basque.html
Frank Gordon Gordon. (1931). Through Basque to Minoan. Oxford University Press.
Fusional language. (2020, April 19). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusional_language
Gorrochategui , J., & Lakarra, J. A. (2013). Why Basque cannot be, unfortunately, an Indo-European language. Euskararen Jatorria, 41(1 and 2). http://euskararenjatorria.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/06Gorrochategui-Lakarra-JIES.pdf
Guiter, H. (1968). La langue des Pictes (3rd–4th ed., Vol. 24). Museo de San Telmo. https://www.rsbap.org/ojs/index.php/boletin/article/view/1651
Hand of Irulegi: ancient bronze artefact could help trace origins of Basque language. (2022, November 15). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/15/hand-of-irulegi-ancient-spanish-artefact-rewrites-history-of-basque-language
Hubschmid, J. (1965). Thesaurus Praeromanicus (Francke, Ed.; Vols. 1–2). (Original work published 1963)
James Maxwell Anderson. (1988). Ancient Languages of the Hispanic Peninsula. University Press of America.
José Ignacio Hualde, Lakarra, J. A., & Trask, R. L. (1995). Towards a History of the Basque Language. John Benjamins Publishing.
K. Anipa. (2014). “Diálogo de la lengua”. By Juan de Valdés. MHRA.
Lafon, R. (1948). Correspondances basques-caucasiques. Eusko-Jakintza, 2, 359–370.
Lazaro, E. de. (2022, November 23). 2,000-Year-Old Inscribed Bronze Hand Rewrites History of Basque Language | Sci.News. Sci.News: Breaking Science News. https://www.sci.news/archaeology/hand-of-irulegi-11419.html
Learn Basque - Grammar. (n.d.). Www.101languages.net. Retrieved December 13, 2023, from https://www.101languages.net/basque/grammar.html#:~:text=A%20Basque%20noun%20is%20inflected
Löpelmann, M. (1968). Etymologisches Wörterbuch der baskischen Sprache. Walter de Gruyter.
Manuel de Larramendi. (1729). El Impossible vencido arte de la lengua bascongada. Translated by Antonio Tovar.
Merritt Ruhlen. (1994). On the origin of language: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy (pp. 277–336). Stanford University Press.
Michelena, L. (1953). Review of Bouda. 141–144.
Michelena, L. (1954). De onomastica aquitana. Pirineos, 10, 409–458.
Michelena, L. (1957). Las antiguas consonantes vascas (Vol. I, pp. 113–157). Universidad del Pais Vasco. Translated by R.L. Trask.
Morpheme. (2020, September 15). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme
Morphological typology. (2019, August 5). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_typology
Mukarovsky, H. G. (1963). Baskisch und Berberisch. Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Des Morgenlandes, 59/60, 52–94. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23888342
Pre-Indo-European languages. (2023, October 29). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Indo-European_languages
Proto-Indo-European language. (2019, November 19). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language
Román del Cerro, J. L. (1993). El origen ibérico de la lengua vasca.
Schuchardt, H. (1907). Die iberische Deklination. Alfred Holder.
Schuchardt, H. (1913). Baskisch und Hamitisch (pp. 289–340).
Siculo, L. M., & Eguia, M. (1533). De las cosas memorables de España. En Casa de Miguel de Eguia.
Synthetic language. (2020, April 28). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_language
Tovar, A. (1949). Estudios Sobre Las Primitivas Lenguas Hispanicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Tovar, A. (1959). Lenguas prerromanas no indoeuropeas: testimonios antiguos. Enciclopedia Linguistica Hispanica, I, 5–26.
Tovar, A. (1961). The Ancient Languages of Spain and Portugal (S. F. Vanni, Ed.).
Tovar, A., Ottman, J., & Joaquín Gorrochategui Churruca. (2015). Mythology and ideology of the Basque language. Center For Basque Studies, University Of Nevada, Reno.
Trask, R. L. (1997). The History of Basque (1st ed.). Routledge.
Venemann, T. (1994). Der Name der Landeshauptstadt Muchen. Literatur in Bayern, September, 2–7.
Vennemann, T. (1994). Linguistic Reconstruction in the Context of European Prehistory (92nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 215–284). Transactions of the Philological Society.
Vitaliĭ Viktorovich Shevoroshkin. (1991). Dene-Sino-Caucasian Languages.
Wilhelm von Humboldt. (1821). Prüfung der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache.
Ximénez de Rada, R. (1545). Rerum in Hispania gestarum chronicon (14th ed.). https://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000071013&page=1. Translated by Antonio Tovar.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2024 Bowen Peng; Dr. John Bieter, Dr. Miren Karmele Azkarate Villar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
